BP Accuses Halliburton Of Destroying Gulf Spill Evidence

The complicated effort to assign blame for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history took another legal twist Monday when BP went to court to accuse Halliburton of "destroying damaging evidence about the quality of its cement slurry that went into drilling the oil well," The Associated Press writes.

According to the BBC, "Halliburton denied this, saying the claims were 'without merit.' " And, the BBC adds, Halliburton "also accused BP of fraud and defamation in the investigation."

As the AP says:

"The allegations in the 310-page motion [from BP] ratcheted up the showdown among BP PLC and contractors, Halliburton and Transocean Ltd. The three companies have been sparring over blame for the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and led to the release of 206 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. ... Also involved are Anadarko Petroleum Co. and Cameron International Corp. The first trial over the Deepwater Horizon disaster is scheduled to start Feb. 27 in New Orleans."

In October, Anadarko announced it would pay BP $4 billion "to settle all of BP's current and future claims" against it.